Spotlight on a punk Chartbuster

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During the 1980s, Robin Lane was a fixture on the Boston punk music scene with her band, the Chartbusters. Years later, she began hosting songwriting workshops for women who have survived trauma and abuse. “When Things Go Wrong: Robin Lane’s Story,” a new film from Tim Jackson, is about, among other things, the difficulties of sustaining a career as an independent woman in the male dominated music business. Jackson, an assistant professor at the New England Institute of Art in Boston, is also a musician who has played drums with Lane for 35 years. The soundtrack features 21 songs by Lane, many heard for the first time. The film has its premiere benefit screening April 4 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, followed by a Q&A with both Jackson and Lane as well as live performances by Lane, the Chartbusters, Barrence Whitfield, Ramona Silver, and others. Proceeds from the screening will help secure rights to the Robin Lane songs featured in the film.

War is a science

On Monday, 17 cinemas across the country will take part in the inaugural national evening of “Science on Screen,” which will feature a short introductory video followed by a film and a guest speaker at each venue. The Coolidge Corner Theatre, which originated the “Science on Screen” program in 2005, will be screening Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar classic “Paths of Glory,” starring Kirk Douglas. Experimental psychologist Steven Pinker — who was the first “Science on Screen” guest speaker in ’05 — will introduce the film with a talk about human nature, warfare, and other forms of violence. “Science on Screen” expanded to other independent cinemas (the Amherst Cinema is the only other Massachusetts venue) through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.